MusicTank Entrusted with JazzUK Legacy

14 Nov 2017

Tues 14th Nov, London:MusicTank, University of Westminster is delighted to announce that it is to receive the assets of JazzUK as part of that charity’s formal closure.

With the funding landscape severely challenging JazzUK’s viability, MusicTank has been appointed the sole beneficiary of this organisation’s 30-year legacy of supporting UK jazz and its musicians.

Both University of Westminster and MusicTank enjoyed a long association with JazzUK’s forerunner, Jazz Services, having produced reports and furthering insight into the support and promotion of British Jazz. These reports were authored by leading British black music academic, Mykaell Riley (Director, British Black Music Research Centre) including The Value of Jazz in Britain (Pt 1 and Pt 2) and Jazz in the Media, the outcomes of which lead to a seminal MusicTank debate on the issue of public sector broadcasting’s representation of jazz, comparing the policy and practice of state broadcasters in north European countries with the UK’s BBC.

Central to JazzUK’s work was the provision of online business information with which to further both musicians’ careers and those businesses working in the sector, and it is with that in mind that MusicTank was deemed the most appropriate beneficiary of JazzUKs archive.

Whilst work gets underway sifting through this content, the jazz community can access JazzUK’s Online Music Business Resourcehere.

Jonathan Robinson, Programme Director, MusicTank said: “Having worked with Jazz Services to further raise the genre’s profile in public sector broadcasting, we are not only well aware of the issues affecting the genre, but also conscious of the great progress made by JazzUK and its forerunner, Jazz Services. We are therefore delighted to be entrusted with JazzUK’s legacy, which aligns well with MusicTank’s overarching ethos of sharing information and know-how as openly as possible. Watch this space.“

Dominic McGonigal, JazzUK Chair, said: “In a sense, our job has been done. As the jazz infrastructure has developed and the next generation of jazz musicians is coming through, it’s time now to ‘pass the baton on. We believe that with the resources available to MusicTank, a greater number of musicians, more educators and more promotors and venues will be able to benefit from JazzUK resources”